Rugged Greytown too good

FIRED UP: Masterton Marist's Marcus Ale, backed up by Shannon Rimene-Albrett, comes up short against Greytown during Old Timer's Day and the Tui Cup tournament at the Marist Rugby Club in Masterton.

A strong first half set the platform for Greytown's 31-10 victory over Marist in Saturday's feature club rugby match.

There was much anticipation leading into the clash of the two unbeaten teams in the Moose Kapene Cup senior competition. But the match was effectively over at halftime, with Greytown scoring four tries and taking a 28-3 lead into the break.

The win was set up by the rugged Greytown forward pack, which forced a number of turnovers, and regularly had Marist on the back foot in the early scrums. However, it was the backs that did the damage on the scoreboard. Centre Carlos Rimene scored the first try after a scintillating 40m run that saw him easily beat three tackles. Three minutes later, lanky young winger Abe Southey intercepted a wayward Marist pass and sprinted 70m to dot down under the posts.

That fired up Marist, who started to put some good phases together. A slashing run by rising star fullback Malatai Malatai ended with a player being held up over the line. However, that was as good as it got for Marist. The rest of the half was dominated by Greytown. They were probably unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty try when they forced the Marist scrum to disintegrate near the try-line on two occasions. It was not long though before Greytown's third try. A slashing run by livewire winger Nick Robinson led to second-five Byron Karaitiana crossing for the five points. The first half finished with another intercept. This time fullback Nick Olsen latched on to a Marist pass and scored out wide.

Marist started the second half reinvigorated, and were rewarded with their only try two minutes after the restart. After concerted forward pressure close to the Greytown line, halfback Joseph Sio delivered a lovely pass to big prop Shannon Rimene who crashed over for the five pointer. The only other scoring was a Greytown penalty after 64 minutes.

The second half was scrappy, especially the scrums. The body positions of both teams appeared to be far from ideal. Despite some adventurous play Marist were unable to breach the Greytown defence, and regularly turned over the ball for the southerners to clear.

Overall Greytown deserved their victory. The rugged approach of their forward pack in the opening stanza caused all sorts of problems. They were well led by experienced prop Kurt Simmonds, while No8 Gareth van Dalen impressed with his ball carrying, which gave the forwards some great front foot ball.

Marist were let down by a lack of accuracy in the set pieces, especially in the first half, when they struggled to match the Greytown scrum and regularly botched their lineout. Their backs were willing to chance their arm, but their expansive approach proved costly with two intercept tries. Halfback Sio impressed behind a forward pack that at times struggled to go forward, while the dangerous Malatai was kept well in check by Greytown.

A nice touch on Marist Old-Timers Day was that each of the senior players was accompanied on to the field by a club junior.

Meanwhile, Pioneer moved into second place with a scintillating performance away to Gladstone. The red and blues ran in six tries in their 40-12 victory. Martinborough picked up their second win of the season with a bonus point victory over East Coast. They scored five tries in the 29-11 win. And to wrap up a day of high scoring matches, Carterton scored their first win of the season. In a solid all-round display Carterton scored four tries to beat Eketahuna 35-8.

RESULTS

MOOSE KAPENE CUP

Greytown 31 (Carlos Rimene, Byron Karaitiana, Nick Olsen tries; Abe Southey try, 3 pens, con); Marist 10 (Shannon Rimene try, Pua Tafa pen, Keiran Te Whare con) ; HT 28-3.

Pioneer 40 (Jayden Mason , Matt Kawana, Himiona Haira, Joe Dahlberg-Paku, Tom Harmon tries Joe Thompson try, 5 Con) Gladstone 12 (Dylan Lord-Bune 2 Tries, William Silvey con)

Martinborough 29 (Stacey Aporo, Hemi Davis, Matt Johnson, Cody Thompson, Hendrix Kora tries, Tipi Haira 2 Con); East Coast 11 Utah Walker try, Jamie Geary 2 pen)

Carterton 35 (Jacko Hull, Brock Price, John McFadzean, Josh Cadwallader tries. Andy Humberstone 3 Con, 3 Pen); Eketahuna 8 (Brandon Taylor try, Tom Mueli pen)

BURGER KING SENIOR RESERVE

Carterton 34 Eketahuna 17; Pioneer 74 Gladstone 10; Greytown 37 Marist 25; Tuhirangi 93 East Coast 17; Masterton Red Star Bye.